Tap-In Question: One West Coast city down, what are your initial observations on this trip?

Any new observations about this Orioles team – and its playoff chances – after one city is down on this 10-game trip?

Maybe this is a little premature – not much of a sample size – but this is what happens in August when you’re a self-proclaimed playoff contender. Every series is worthy of being scrutinized. Therefore, that’s how I’m starting our conversation today in the Tap Room. No deep thinking required. Many of you may be sleep deprived after two late Orioles games in the last three days, anyway. Just a basic, ‘What are ya thinking?’

The Orioles lost the rubber match to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif., 5-1, and are two games under .500 again at 56-58.

Now they go to Oakland to play four against an Athletics’ squad that has the second worst record in the American League. The Orioles need to win three there to head into Seattle with more victories than losses on the trip.

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I’ve stressed previously how important this 10-game West Coast jaunt is. In my opinion, the Orioles need to be over .500 when they come back to Camden Yards. They need to continue the momentum they had when they left Sunday. They need to keep showing signs of life to justify not breaking up this club last month. At 1-2, the Orioles now have to go 5-2 to escape the west with a winning record. Doable, but not ideal.

Mathematically, I think they are going to be hanging around the Wild Card battle for a while; that is just the way it appears in a race in which no one is running away.

But, realistically, it’s all about playing well now and beating up on sub-.500 teams before the final month’s gauntlet against the American League East.

These Orioles were outscored 10-9 in the LA series, but plated just three runs in the final two games, ones that were started by Angels’ rookies (including a former Oriole).

My two observations from this series:

The old broken record with this offense: Homer, and score. Don’t homer, and struggle. When they don’t go deep – six of their nine runs came via the home run in this series and four on one swing by Manny Machado on Monday — the offense kicks and sputters. A bad omen if the Orioles reach the postseason again and has to face elite pitching.

31 Comments

For more-than-obvious reasons, I for one am so very relieved that “no deep thinking” is required this morning, or I hope, any other Tap Room session for that matter. hic°

Of course the obvious observation is that the boys have suddenly stopped scoring runs. Take out Machado’s Grand Salami on Monday, and basically, they’ve been shut out this series. Maybe that’s a product of the park they’re playing in … maybe it’s simply the natural ebb & flow of a 162 game baseball season.

So .. with absolutely no thought involved, it appears to this observer, that it’s more than a lack of homers (although they had a couple) that plagues us. It just seems to me that the team has stopped letting the ball travel. They’ve stopped raking. And certainly they’ve stopped turning and burning. More importantly, they’ve stopped hitting with RISP, thereby preventing the line from moving. (I hope that covers the bulk of Heidi Watney’s repertoire)

This lineup should be able to cover Gausman giving up 4. That aside, it’s easy to malign the pitcher when they give up 6 runs as it’s one person. When ALL of the bats go silent at once, it’s so frustrating. The natural inclination is to look for someone to blame. I could understand it when it’s Chris Sale or the like, but against the lower tiered folk…

Marshall: that’s the key here. These were three inexperienced or unheralded pitchers. You have to make a little noise in two games against pitchers with a combined 10 MLB starts or so under their belts. Drink chip.

Where’s the O in this offense?? It’s here then it’s gone just as quick. Again , I like the occasional shakeup aplied to the lineup, it’s at least something to try especially now when the Os can least afford these prolonged droughts at the plate given the number of games/chances to gain ground dwindling.
On a lighter note, Chris Davis didn’t strike out in 4 ABs yesterday. I guess that’s something .

I’ve wondered this the last 2-3 seasons – should the Orioles have different lineups for different ballparks. A hitter-friendly midsummer Camden Yards is ripe for the Os standard lineup, but the bigger, more pitcher-friendly parks that seem to crush the Orioles every West Coast and AL-Central swing may require a more defensive/on-base oriented lineup . The AL East Parks, with the exception of the Trop, could all use the standard OPACY lineup that mashes, but the KC, Oakland, Seattles of the world, may need a more contact-oriented, OBP approach.

Ideally, at home, without a lot of outfield to cover defensively, and with shorter fences to all fields, your healthy lineup, without scuffling, would look similar to what we saw the last homestand (minus trumbo and his injury):

This lineup removes one of the current massive holes of Davis or Trumbo. I lean toward keeping Crush and his 1B defense in.

The other issue that is noticeable on the road, is that with the current top of the lineup construction, they struggle to get it going the first time through. For whatever reason, it seems this lineup needs an inning or two to get going, and when you have Jones, Machado and Schoop getting up there and going 1-2-3 in the first on 7 pitches, or one of them getting on and then Davis striking out on 4 or 5 pitches, it allows the opposing pitcher to build confidence and it also sets a tone. If you had Smith and Beckham leading into Machado and Schoop, there would be the chance for a more extended top of the first. I like Jones, and really like when the lineup turns over to him later in the game, and I understand that you only lead off once a game, but the throwaway at bats early need to be addressed.

This is where I am on this team – it is built for Camden Yards, but is in the midst of a crucial road trip that hinges on whether Buck will make the necessary lineup adjustments.

Last note – I don’t understand the approach the last two days when it came to pulling the starters, I think in at least one of the two games, if not both, the leash needed to be shorter. On Tuesday, Hellickson was rolling through 6, but at the start of the 7th, it was obvious he had used everything he had to get Trout out to end the previous inning. He went back out on 90 pitches, having gone over 100 only twice on the year. Buck needed to have a short leash – if he was going to pull him after Calhoun got on, he should have after Simmons ripped a hanging change. Then yesterday, Gaus had labored through 5, Buck needs to be ready to yank him the second the leadoff guy gets on. The score has to stay 2-1.

My hope is that Buck’s leashes are a little shorter in Oakland as they really do need to win these games.

All that said, 6-4 would be OK. No one is really crushing it in the WC race, and you’d go 5-2 against Oakland and Seattle.

Beckham needs to be the leadoff guy henceforth and not just because he is absolutely tearing it up. Speed on the basepath factors in. Mancini needs to rise in the order also. Davis and/ or Trumbo 6/7 and preferably not play at the same time. When the rosters expand Alvarez needs to depose Trumbo. As noted, Davis defense still makes him valuable.
Beckham
Mancini
Schoop
Machado
Jones
After the five spot plug in the holes

Oakland has a winning record against the east so orioles will split the series and Seattle won the series last year when Seth smith hit a hrs in 4 games. Oakland will be playing a lot of unknown players because of all the trades but orioles can beat Sandy Koufax it’s the Peter bridwell they cannot beat. 3and 4 will be lucky for them.

When are all of the pundits going to realize this is a mediocre team? Bridwell was to be an Os reliever, yet the Angels saw him as a starter. Another example of Oriole blunders in handling of pitchers in the minors. W jave deloped a few good pitchers but used them as trade bait as our minors do not seem to develop pitchers quite as readily as position players.
Buck has to stop being so loyal to his vets and bat Mancini between Davis and Trumbo or if that does not work do not play more than one of them at a time. Perhaps DL Smith and bring up Alvarez who supposedly is tearing up Norfolk; as the season wears on there will be fewer options
The Birds future is not now…it will depend on trades made this winter for several marquee players to hopefully change the fortunes of this team..

The games have been on too late for me to watch, so I have only heard the scores the next day. I really thought that we’d win the series in Anaheim, and then struggle in Oakland and hopefully split in Seattle. We never do well in Oakland so I don’ t have high hopes that this trip is going to end well since it hasn’t started well. IMO, this is probably the beginning of the end.